Journal of Food Processing & Technology

Converting food leftovers into energy and fertilizer resources

4^th International Conference and Exhibition on Food Processing & Technology

August 10-12, 2015 London, UK

Ruihong Zhang

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Food Process Technol

Abstract:

The State of California has recently enacted new legislation and policies for accelerating the development of low carbon economy.
Many food processors and suppliers have established sustainability goals for their businesses. Diverting food processing residuals
and food waste from landfill and converting them into energy, fertilizer and other valuable products is an effective pathway to reduce
the carbon footprint and improve the environmental and economic sustainability of food processing facilities and food businesses.
UC Davis’s high solids anaerobic digestion technology has made the co-production of renewable natural gas and biofertilizers from
food waste possible at commercial scales. The new anaerobic digestion technology has been successfully used in three commercial
food wastes to energy projects in the Sacramento region. At full capacities, these facilities convert over 150 tons of food wastes each
day into biomethane gas. The biomethane produced at Sacramento Biodigester is currently used as renewable natural gas for trucks
and cars and the biogas produced at UC Davis Renewable Energy Anaerobic Digestion facility is used for generating approximately 5.6
GWh of renewable electricity per year. This presentation provides a review of anaerobic digestion technologies and their applications
for food waste conversion and highlights the food waste to biogas energy projects that Clean World has in operation.

Biography :

Ruihong Zhang is a Professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at University of California, Davis (UC Davis). She has more than 25 years of
research and teaching experiences with bioenergy and biofuel production, waste treatment and environmental quality management and control. She has successfully
transferred new technologies from her laboratories to commercial companies. She is now serving as Chief Technology Advisor for CleanWorld, a Sacramento based
Bioenergy Company. She has over 300 scientific publications and seven patents. She received her PhD degree of Agricultural Engineering from the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign in 1992. She then joined the faculty of Iowa State University in 1993 and the faculty of UC Davis in 1995. She conducted innovative research and
technology development on the production of biofuels and biochemicals from food and agricultural wastes. She received several prestigious awards, including the New
Holland Young Researcher Award from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers in 2003, Environmental Award from the US Environmental Protection
Agency in 2007, and Distinguished Career Award from Association of Overseas Chinese Agricultural, Biological and Food Engineers in 2010, Achievement Award from
California Bioresources Alliance in 2013, and CleanTech Innovator of the Year from Sacramento Regional Technology Alliance (SARTA) in 2014.